Posted on 08/23/2008 8:51:36 PM PDT by STARWISE
Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities.
Michelle Obama -- currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital -- helped create the program, which aims to find neighborhood doctors for low-income people who were flooding the emergency room for basic treatment.
Hospital officials say such patients hinder their ability to focus on more critically ill patients in need of specialized care, such as cancer treatment and organ transplants.
Obama's top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program -- called the Urban Health Initiative -- to the community as a better alternative for poor patients.
Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring, hospital officials said.
Another Obama adviser and close friend, Dr. Eric Whitaker, took over the Urban Health Initiative when he was hired at U. of C. in October 2007.
Whitaker previously had been director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Obama has said he recommended Whitaker for the state job, giving his name to Tony Rezko, who helped Gov. Blagojevich assemble his Cabinet.
Rezko, a former fund-raiser for Obama and Blagojevich, was convicted in June on federal corruption charges tied to state deals.
Medical center officials and Obama's presidential campaign staff say the Urban Health Initiative -- along with a three-year-old companion program called the South Side Health Collaborative -- will dramatically improve health care for thousands of South Side residents.
They say that, rather than having to wait hours at U. of C.'s emergency room, those patients get seen sooner and at less expense at neighborhood clinics and other hospitals. U. of C. even offers them a ride on a shuttle bus to other centers and sometimes provides the doctors at those facilities.
"Senator Obama sees community health centers as a vital part of efforts to invest in prevention and reduce costs," said Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman.
But the Urban Health Initiative has critics, including South Side residents and medical professionals.
"I've heard complaints from a handful of constituents, but I've also had calls from people in the health care profession complaining," said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, whose 4th Ward is just north of the hospital.
"The medical professionals who have come to me are accusing the university of dumping patients on its neighboring institutions. ... Whether it's being implemented in the way that's in the best interest of the patient, I can't tell you."
More at link
~~Ding!
The Evil Michelle just munching her way through the poor people in Chicago.
Obama corruption bump / Michelle Obama hates poor people bump
These patients need a community organizer...
I don’t know the laws that compel hospitals to
treat patients, maybe some of you do. This
plan sounds extremely arbitrary and self-serving.
“They say that, rather than having to wait hours at U. of C.’s emergency room, those patients get seen sooner and at less expense at neighborhood clinics and other hospitals. U. of C. even offers them a ride on a shuttle bus to other centers and sometimes provides the doctors at those facilities.”
**
Sick people being bussed ?
Whether it's being implemented in the way that's in the best interest of the patient, I can't tell you."
Apparently it's being implemented in a way that benefits Michelle & Barack Obama $317,000 a year.
I guess it's hard for Michelle to be proud when she's kicking needy people out of the hospital.
You can’t make this stuff up.
It has the usual contours of Lefty hypocrisy.
Brute political expediency masquerading as concern, and
“doing the good thing”. Wonder who is footing the bill for this “initiative”.
It almost sounds good, but how do these probably much less profitable smaller hospitals and clinics absorb the cost? Aren’t university hospitals usually teaching hospitals?
Valerie Jarrett - Close to Barack and Michelle, she says what campaign aides don’t—or can’t.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/136349
Jarrett has no formal title inside the campaign, other than senior adviser.
Her place at the table comes from her long personal relationship with both Barack and Michelle Obama. She is the insider-outsider, a trusted friend who can give them a view from beyond the confines of the campaign bubble.
Jarrett was brought into the campaign part time last fall (she’s CEO of real-estate developer The Habitat Co.), when Obama was stuck 20 points behind Hillary Clinton and pundits were writing him off.
“It’s good to have someone saying, ‘Why are you doing it that way?’” says strategist David Axelrod.
Jarrett was Michelle Obama’s mentor. An aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in the 1990s, she hired Michelle away from her law firm to work for the city. A veteran of Chicago politics, Jarrett got her start working for Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor.
Her grandfather ran the Chicago Housing Authority in the 1940s.
Obama has long turned to her for advice. When he wanted to run for the U.S. Senate, he first had to convince Michelle and Jarrett that it was a good idea. He’s been seeking her counsel ever since.
~~~~
Meet Obama’s Right-Hand Woman
Close Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Perhaps The Most Powerful Woman In Chicago After Oprah, Talks With Katie Couric
(CBS) When Karl Rove worked for President Bush, he had so much influence that some called him “Bush’s Brain.” Valerie Jarrett is the woman known as the other side of Barack Obama’s brain.
Jarrett, a 51-year-old business leader and single mother, just may be the most powerful woman in Chicago besides Oprah. And she’s earned the complete confidence of Barack and Michelle Obama.
~~~
Obama Camp Has Many Ties To Wife’s Employer
8/23/2008
http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=4616
Excerpt:
A few years ago, executives at the prestigious University of Chicago Medical Center were concerned that an increasing number of patients were arriving at their emergency room with what the executives considered to be non-urgent complaints. The visits were costly to the hospital, and many of the patients, coming from the surrounding South Side neighborhood, were poor and uninsured. ...
Axelrod’s firm recommended an aggressive promotional effort modeled on a political campaign — appoint a campaign manager, conduct focus groups, target messages to specific constituencies, then recruit religious leaders and other third-party “validators.” They, in turn, would write and submit opinion pieces to Chicago publications.
One key recommendation from Axelrod’s firm: “Respond quickly to opposition activity.”
The medical center’s initiative provides a window into the close relationship between the Obamas, their associates at the University of Chicago and Axelrod, the strategist most central to Barack Obama’s rise. ...
The avowed purpose of the statute is to prevent hospitals from rejecting patients, refusing to treat them, or transferring them to "charity hospitals" or "county hospitals" because they are unable to pay or are covered under the Medicare or Medicaid programs.
EMTALA is primarily but not exclusively a non-discrimination statute. One would cover most of its purpose and effect by characterizing it as providing that no patient who presents with an emergency medical condition and who is unable to pay may be treated differently than patients who are covered by health insurance.
In essence, then, the statute:
* imposes an affirmative obligation on the part of the hospital to provide a medical screening examination to determine whether an "emergency medical condition" exists;* imposes restrictions on transfers of persons who exhibit an "emergency medical condition" or are in active labor, which restrictions may or may not be limited to transfers made for economic reasons;
* imposes an affirmative duty to institute treatment if an "emergency medical condition" does exist.
The definition provided under the statute is:
"A medical condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in --
placing the health of the individual (or, with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child) in serious jeopardy,serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part, or
"With respect to a pregnant woman who is having contractions -- that there is inadequate time to effect a safe transfer to another hospital before delivery, or that the transfer may pose a threat to the health or safety of the woman or her unborn child."
Thank you!! Federal law, I’m assuming .. then how does this initiative by the Obama crew not fly in the face of that law?
This story is everywhere .. google blog search. MSNBC had it, too .. now it’s removed .. how surprising //// sarc.
~~~~
Obama Camp’s Many Ties To Wife’s Employer
Washington Post: Michelle, Barack, David Axelrod And The University Of Chicago
Excerpt:
Shortly after Barack Obama joined the U.S. Senate in 2005, the medical center promoted Michelle Obama to vice president of community and external relations, and more than doubled her salary. She is now on leave from the $317,000-a-year post, in which she sought to bridge the gap between the wealthy institution and its poorer neighbors. The hospital declined to discuss the budget for her program or her input into budgetary decisions.
The vast majority of political contributions from university employees have gone to Democrats, and over the past nine years they have donated at least $373,000 to Barack Obama’s campaigns, records show. The university’s executive suites are home to a number of the couple’s closest friends and financial backers.
The medical center’s chairwoman, Valerie Jarrett, is a close friend and top adviser who travels frequently with Barack Obama. One of Barack’s best friends, Eric Whitaker, is executive vice president at the center and is now in charge of the Urban Health Initiative.
Hospital board member Kelly R. Welsh is executive vice president at Northern Trust Co., which extended the couple a $1.3 million home mortgage shortly after Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate. Dan Shomon, Barack Obama’s former campaign manager, is a university lobbyist. Jarrett, Whitaker, Welsh and Shomon all declined to be interviewed or did not respond to requests.
The 600-bed medical center, which has a $1.3 billion budget, has more than 700 attending physicians. The hospital is a leader in such specialties as cancer care and organ transplants, and boasts that patients travel from around the world for treatment. Its facilities feature valet parking, a meditation garden and, in some rooms, 42-inch flat-panel televisions.
Quentin Young, a local physician whose five-doctor medical office lists Barack Obama among its patients, said that in past decades the South Side often viewed the institution as a “citadel of exclusion,” more interested in research than the well-being of its neighbors.
The hospital’s general counsel, Susan Sher, said she approached Michelle Obama in 2001 and asked her to develop plans to bring the hospital closer to the surrounding neighborhood.
Sher is a longtime friend of Michelle Obama; they worked together at Chicago City Hall, where Sher was head of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s law department. Michelle Obama “grew up in this community,” Sher said, adding that that makes her uniquely qualified.
~~~~
And we thought the Clinton web of incestuous relationships was thick ... dearlord .. the Chicago Way may just beat it.
Ooops .. read that too quickly. So, if they’re not considered medical emergencies, they can be bussed to another facility?
The laws that require treatment are EMTALA - emergency medical treatment and active labor act. Patients are not to be transferred until they are stabilized, and not during active labor. Most states have county hospitals that treat those on Medicaid or without coverage. That woould be Cook County Hosp. in Chicago.
As for busing sick patients - many ER patients are not that sick and can stand the travel. They might have bronchitis. They might have a UTI. They sprained a wrist, or have a laceration needing a few stitches.
Some people don’t need professional treatment - buy your feverish kid some Tylenol; buy your own pregnancy test. It’s not an emergency.
Some people don’t have a doctor; some people can’t get an early appointment; some people don’t know any better.
I’m a volunteer EMT. I’d guess roughly, a third of our patients don’t need the ER - they could call their doctor in the morning or even self-treat. Maybe a third need the ER but don’t need an ambulance ride there. Most of the rest decide to decline transport or assistance. And a few, maybe 10%, really need to go in the ambulance.
The local ER has a Fast Track for minor ailments.
The U of C hospital is setting up local “Fast Tracks” and trying to train people to use them. Nothing wrong with that.
I’m sure they don’t want to get rid of all poor patients. One reason major teaching hospitals are located in inner cities is because of all the tremendous learning opportunities presented by the pathologies and traumas of the urban poor. They just want to send the sniffle cases to the neighborhood clinics.
yitbos
The receiving facility must agree to accept the patient after a medical screening exam has occurred at the transferring facility. Read closely the broad definition of a medical emergency. If patients are being triaged out of the ER by a nurse, more than likely this represents an EMTALA violation.
Good question ... and in Chicago, just so happens that one of those that was a dumping place hospitals, an old structure, is earnestly desired by Mayor Daley as a site for the 2016 Olympics .. which he’s craving. So, some deals have been made, and it’s presently being closed/sold ..... hmmmmmmm.
~~~~
Cleanup may muddy Reese deal
Asbestos, lead paint among old facility’s problems
By Kathy Bergen and Hal Dardick | Chicago Tribune reporters
July 10, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-michael-reese-2016-olympjul10,0,2939009.story
At first glimpse, Chicago appears to have cut a pretty sweet, low-risk deal in its proposed purchase of the Michael Reese Hospital property for potential use as a 2016 Olympic Village, observers say.
The seller, hospital supplier Medline Industries Inc., appears to be making out nicely as well, a position that could be enhanced if it takes advantage of a number of potential tax breaks, one expert said.
But at least one wild card remains as the city continues work on an environmental assessment of the property, whose 27 brick and concrete structures date way back, some to 1907.
An earlier environmental report, prepared in 2003 and shared with potential bidders for the property last year, noted that many of the buildings contained asbestos and that lead-based paint was likely to be found throughout the aging facility. And several abandoned underground storage tanks were considered potential problems because information about them was lacking.
*snip*
The city would be buying the 37-acre parcel on the Near South Side “as is,” he noted, “so that’s why we’re doing the assessment now, before we enter into the agreement.”
Under the proposed deal introduced to the City Council on Wednesday, Chicago would pay $85 million for the Near South Side tract.
In turn, Mundelein-based Medline, the hospital’s landlord, would make a $20 million cash contribution to the city to cover interest payments in the near term, as well as for building demolition and environmental cleanup.
“Sick people being bussed ?”
This is a secondary issue, but since we’re talking about people being taken somewhere by bus, I just have to point this out:
If you’ve been “bussed,” you have just received a nice big wet smacky kiss.
If you’ve been “bused,” you have been taken for a ride. (By Michelle Ma Belle and her friends, in this case.)
Same for “bussing” and “busing.”
I hate to say this BUT .. I agree with what they are doing. For years, or decades, the poor, and now illegals, have gone to the ER for help with everyday illnesses that are not emergencies.
DC’s former Mayor Barry once complained that the poor would call 911 for an ambulance to take them to the ER for non-emergencies, taking time, space and financial resources away from where they are truly needed. He was right. He said, further, that many called the ambulance to avoid paying cab fare. Again, he was right. In DC alone I can think of four hospitals that went broke and closed from this type of abuse.
Regular care can and should be taken care of at local clinics and not at emergency rooms.
Using, or over or misusing ER’s is very bad for our health system. Diverting non-emergencies is an excellent idea. WIthout that abuse, costs would be nowhere as high.
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